They are doing it!

[Deleted]

I'm still waiting for the other shoe to drop.

[Emerald Archer]

Looks like there will still be little reason to roll marksman now tho especially with these changes. Wish that spec could get as much love rather than a 4% bandaid. These are some much needed BM changes though.

Yes because a hotfix change, and a change in a class adjusting patch is the same thing. We don't know our changes yet, we don't know if we do or don't have them. We have no idea if we'll get more love or less yet. So stop making assumptions.

[Stupud]

So do I stop being salty for not having shoulders or are they still the best legendary to have?

Depends on the percent change to Wild Call, but you'll be "less salty" since you will have the most impactful change built into the spec for free.

[Turtel]

Personally I'm waiting for the tuning pass before deciding whether I like the changes or not. They're definitely going to nerf BM's damage somewhere to make up for the huge buff they just gave. I'm probably in a very small minority but I personally don't care about all these supposed 'flaws' of each spec that need 'fixing'. To me, if the damage is balanced, that's all that matters (within reason of course, e.g. useless padding doesn't count). I'd rather go back to having only 1 charge of Dire Beast and a 25 yard Kill Command range if it meant doing more damage in every fight.

It may be the case that MM hunters always lose several Aimed Shot casts throughout a fight due to mechanics/bad RNG, but this loss of damage will be included in the logs that Blizzard uses to balance the specs. If MM falls behind significantly because of these lost Aimed Shot casts, then Blizzard will buff the damage of the Aimed Shots that did get cast (or other abilities). Blizzard will specifically be looking at logs for the Tomb of Sargeras bosses, and buff/nerf accordingly (as they did with EN, 7.1.5 and NH), so it's pretty much flat out wrong to say with any certainty whether either MM or BM will be the better spec for the Tomb of Sargeras. No one will know until the tuning pass happens.

[Shakou]

The shoulders make the build much more enjoyable. More active, less downtime, more buff management. It's a REALLY good change.

It's not just that, gcd reduced by 0.2 seconds when you cast Aspect of the Wild.

Paraphrasing Blizzard here: We read your feedback hunters and u right, u deserve a spec at least in the top 5, and especially one that is OP faceroll when going up against classes that are similarly shitty geared.

[Tharkkun]

No, they aren't. They should obviously be forbidden, by law, to do so.

The point you're missing is that they made a decision, that was so obviously retarded, and now they're getting cheers because they are saying "ok, ok, we're not doing it".

It's like that real ID thing they did years ago, where they would introduce the idea that your real name would be displayed on the forums. A shitstorn ensued, and they took it back, patting themselves on the back and playing the hero.

Same thing with the exalted for class mounts thing. They probably never intended to go through with it anyway, they just waited for people to be pissed off, so they could get cheered on for taking the requirement back.

No they didn't. Blizzard obviously didn't prefer the design of 2 charges of dire beast/dire frenzy but 6 months into the expansion they added a legendary to test the waters versus a permanent change. Legendaries allowed us to customize our play. But when every single hunter is using the shoulders (if they drop) it shows the overwhelmingly majority want this change. Rather than leave it up to RNG they made a good class change. We'll probably be seeing some damage nerfs as well to account for our pet being on the target more.

The exalted change is completely different. No one has the mounts yet. They had 11 weeks to see how alts were progressing on the reputation before implementing the change. People playing their characters and doing world quests will be exalted after doing the 11 week quest line. It's second, third, 4th characters who aren't doing WQ's alongside it that would be hurt without the change.

[randomnamegenerator16]

Holy shit. They have listened. And provided us with more positive changes as well. I can't believe.

[keyone01]

Yay for BM, nay for MM i guess :/

[Cempa]

Great changes and I can't wait for them to go live! Bases line x2 charges plus wild call changes are welcome .. Now how about some PvP love? Freedom+Entanglement !!!

[Vindicit]

the shoulders better have a huge proc chance addition, any less then 40% and I dont see the shoulders being useful at all.

[Ozzayel]

And now we wait for the huge overkill dmg nerf to go with this...

[khazlol]

well this probably also means the hunter damage will spike and other things will be nerfed

[Darth Belichick]

Why do people think hunter damage will spike to the point of nerfs? A lot of top parsing hunters already have shoulders. Will they see an increase because they can change their legendary and what not? Of course. But it's not going to be so high that it will be insane. It's a solid buff for everyone. For people without shoulders it will be more so, but I don't think it's gonna be insane.

[Lemordet]

What about MM? ...

[khazlol]

Why do people think hunter damage will spike to the point of nerfs? A lot of top parsing hunters already have shoulders. Will they see an increase because they can change their legendary and what not? Of course. But it's not going to be so high that it will be insane. It's a solid buff for everyone. For people without shoulders it will be more so, but I don't think it's gonna be insane.

Well 10+ years of blizzard balance. :P they give with one hand and take with the other

What about MM? ...

i am sure they will get around to that

[Shakou]

Why do people think hunter damage will spike to the point of nerfs? A lot of top parsing hunters already have shoulders. Will they see an increase because they can change their legendary and what not? Of course. But it's not going to be so high that it will be insane. It's a solid buff for everyone. For people without shoulders it will be more so, but I don't think it's gonna be insane.

Accurate. With these changes BM will be an upper mid-range dps spec at best. Nothing outside of substantial dmg buffs plus this will change that. And that's fine, considering hunter's usually shine early on and this expansion they haven't even had the spotlight at all.

[Deleted]

As a BM main without the mantle I can't believe all those buffs. It's miraculous. I just hope the nerf hammer won't hit.

[Khrux]

Finally blizzard listen to feedback. Rip mantle, but who cares, we get to keep 2 charges of db/df at last <3

[HappyLuckBox]

Yes because a hotfix change, and a change in a class adjusting patch is the same thing. We don't know our changes yet, we don't know if we do or don't have them. We have no idea if we'll get more love or less yet. So stop making assumptions.

He's assuming there won't be any change coming to MM hunter, which, based on the lack of blue posts directed to MM, and current buff going to BM, is the only valid assumption one can make. So as of now, given equal artifact power in both bm and mm, yes it will definitely be safer to focus in bm, since bm is already the superior single target spec before this buff even hits live.

All of this, of course is assuming optimal sim conditions (patchwerk), throw in any raid mechanics or movement and BM >>>>>MM


Also, im not sure how some people don't see this as a huge buff to bm. It basically makes shoulders baseline, and further buffs shoulder users to now have a much higher proc chance on crit, (to what extent we don't know), which basically means a much easier time keeping up 3 stacks, much more focus regen, etc.

At the very least, all bm hunters will now have acess to what is basically 3 legendaries, since they can use 2 legendaries of their choosing + a free shoulder. Of course I would expect blizzard to promptly nerf BM hunters 2 days AFTER the ptr goes live....

[Bepples]

I would be fine with taking a moderate damage nerf to keep these changes. BM's problem right now isn't its damage; it's the playstyle. BM is fully mobile, unlike any other ranged spec in the game. It's also very simple. Therefore it really shouldn't be outperforming ranged that are more complex and more immobile. I have been BM exclusively all expansion and I'm fine with that. As long as it's not utterly worthless like we had it in 6.2.

Mobility, simplicity, throughput. Pick two.